Welcome back: Johnston returns and leads Wave in rout

DOVER — Joe Johnston is back on the Dover High School boys hockey team, and he re-introduced himself to Division II in a big way on Wednesday night.

Johnston, back from a year of junior hockey, recorded a hat trick in Dover’s 8-2 season-opening win over Kingswood at the Dover Arena’s Foster Rink. Johnston was a sophomore on the Dover team which won the D-II title in 2010-11.

“Eli Cobb was going hard to the corner,” Johnston said about his teammate, who recorded a hat trick of assists. “Dished the puck out. We’d been working on that all week in practice. Get shots on net, good things happen.”

Dover opened up a 3-0 lead early in the first period, but Kingswood clawed back with a goal late in the first and one early in the second to make it a one-goal game. Johnston’s third goal of the game gave the Green Wave a 4-2 lead and then they shut the door on the Knights.

Five different players scored the Green Wave’s other five goals. Dover goalie Luc Ravenelle made 31 saves as Kingswood outshot Dover 33-29

“I like the way we played at times, but things were sloppy,” Dover coach Steve Riker said. “Especially in our defensive zone. We need to work as hard in the D-zone as we do in the offensive zone.”

Dover was all over the Knights from the outset, as Cam Crowley scored just 50 seconds into the contest to give the Green Wave a 1-0 lead. It was 2-0 at 7:58 when Johnston scored his first of the night, then 3-0 less than three minutes later when Johnston lit the lamp for the second time.

Kingswood finally got on the board at 12:27 of the opening stanza when Brad Riley scored with assistance from Matt Mitchell and Austin Chasse. That cut Dover’s lead to 3-1, where it stood after the first period.

The Knights inched closer at 2:27 of the middle stanza on a goal from Chris Pollini, and all of a sudden what seemed like an easy win for Dover turned into a struggle.

Johnston put any doubt to rest when he made his hat trick official at 11:11 of the second period, potting a rebound of a shot by Cobb to make it 4-2.

“Eli, again, working hard in the corner,” Johnston said. “He was patient with the puck, just came out of the corner and kept going to the net.”

Robert Markusic scored a power-play goal in the final minute of the frame to give Dover a 5-2 lead after two stops.

“We wanted to get that fourth goal,” Riker said. “They made a push and we kind of knew they would.”

Wednesday’s game was marred by skirmishes, including one late in the second period that delayed the game significantly while the officials sorted out the penalties. In all, 38 minutes worth of penalties were handed out, including a 10-minute major to Kingswood’s Pollini as a result of the second-period fracas.

“We played well when it was five on five,” said first-year Kingswood coach Andrew Trimble. “For stretches we did a lot of good things. At times we had a lot of control in their end. But the penalties really hurt us.”

Kieran Lombard, Tim Burke and Ben Henderson all scored for Dover in the third period, as the Green Wave continued their offensive assault. Riley Gowan recorded a pair of assists for Dover.

The two clubs will close the regular season against each other on Feb. 23 in Wolfeboro. In the meantime, both teams return to action on Saturday — Dover visits Lebanon while Kingswood hosts Merrimack.